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| U.SportsTuesday, May 6, 2008 10:31 PM CDT |
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Heartland looks to move forward on stadium in two weeks
NORMAL -- Consultant Mike Thiessen on Tuesday said bids for a minor league stadium at a Heartland Community College site have come in “right at the sweet spot.” Thiessen has received three written bids for a stadium that would seat 3,500 to 4,500 with an ability to expand to 6,000 at a cost of $10 million to $11.5 million. “That tells me it’s a common belief within the market,” said Thiessen, who added a fourth group has expressed interest but has yet to submit a bid. The Heartland Board of Trustees discussed but did not take action on the lower of two bids for its own athletic complex that was approximately $1.7 million higher than its estimate of $3.3 million. “That means they are going to get more value for their dollar from a minor league stadium than to do it on their own,” Thiessen said. Heartland President Jon Astroth expressed disappointment in the discrepancy between estimate and bid. “We have two choices that are not mutually exclusive,” he said. “One is to reduce the scope of the project, try to pare back anything we can. I don’t know whether much can be done there or not. Say we could reduce the price of it somehow, but we could not reduce it all the way to $3.5 million.” The board plans to choose at its next meeting on May 20 between a revamped plan for its own complex or agree to a deal with an ownership group to build a minor league stadium. Heartland would contribute the money it has earmarked for its own complex to the minor league stadium package. “I think it (the bids) surprised everybody. Clearly the college was very surprised and disappointed,” Normal City Manager Mark Peterson said. “It was shocking. We’ve been there. I know how they feel.” Alan Sender, the chair of a committee that has been working with Thiessen to bring a team to Normal, believes Heartland “is grateful to have an option (a minor league stadium would provide). They have an opportunity to leverage their dollar and create what would be a great enhancement for the community.” Thiessen believes that Heartland’s May 20 meeting provides a framework within which he can close a deal. He plans to have a binding letter of intent from an ownership group by that date that would include site access for the group on May 21. “That would allow them to start their engineering and design,” Thiessen said. Thiessen believes it is not in the committee’s best interest to weed out potential bidders as of yet. “Four groups would be great,” he said. “I would have to seek Jon and Mark’s counsel on that. We don’t want to eliminate anybody too soon.” Potential team owners are seeking local minority ownership involvement, according to Sender. “I think all three groups we’ve talked to would welcome local investors,” he said. “Clearly, the three groups would all be majority owners. They are bringing the dollars to the table. This is going to be a private entity and a privately owned and run stadium.” “Most of them see it as a great benefit,” Peterson said. Of the three written bids, Peterson said each would place a Normal team in either the Frontier League or Northern League. Both are independent leagues. Sender believes a minor league baseball team would be a success in Normal. “They’ve had good attendance at hockey, and this is not much of a hockey town. Indoor football was not well known here, yet they’ve had good attendance,” he said. “This is a baseball town. From talking to people, there is extraordinary interest in the community.” Sender indicated the committee approached Illinois State with the idea of the school joining Normal and Heartland in a stadium project. “We had a conversation with Dr. (President Al) Bowman. We went over the plans and concepts probably a year ago,” Sender said. “We had a good meeting, but it was very clear they had a direction in which they were going to go. They have done so. We would have certainly welcomed ISU into this process. The university decided not to pursue this opportunity.” ISU had a ceremonial groundbreaking Saturday for a stadium at the current site of Duffy Bass Field that would seat 1,000 at a cost of approximately $3 million. E-mail this story | Print this story | Search archives | RSS Show comments |  Hide comments | Hide comments on all stories |
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The Real Illini Fan wrote on May 7, 2008 10:05 PM:
Caged Bird wrote on May 7, 2008 7:29 PM:
tripper wrote on May 7, 2008 2:21 PM:
isunormalil wrote on May 7, 2008 11:26 AM:
SoCal Guy wrote on May 7, 2008 9:08 AM:
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